Spring Quilt Market 2011

The Spring Quilt Market was a huge hit. We didn’t have to travel far since it was held in our home state of Utah.

This year we were without Renee because she was in Hershey, PA for her son’s  graduation from Medical School. Congrats Dr. Nathan Hull!!!!

Bobbi, Carolyn and Kathy did the show!!!!  Since our products hold so much, we’re especially grateful for Riley Blake Designs, Lecien, Button Galore, Kati Cupcake, Izzy and Ivy Designs, Atkinson Designs, and The Fiber Goddess for sending products for us to display!!!!  Take a moment to check out their websites and new products - they are amazing companies!

Kathy and  Sweet Sweet Nireko from Lecien’s

Setting up is always the hardest part, but the end result is always worth the effort.  It takes 2 days to set up and 2 hours to take down :)

After Bobbi and Carolyn set most of the booth up, Kathy came in and worked her magic on the decorations.  People loved our booth and said it had a steam punk feel to it. They loved all the junk with the fabric flowers in the mesh!!! Kathy’s quilt was a huge hit, she is amazing and so talented and we are so happy to have her helping us at the shows. She also did the Schoolhouse class on “Don’t Agonizes Organize” Thanks to all that came and to Kathy for doing a great job!!!!

Renee and Carolyn found the metal springs and other rusty old junk at Smith and Edwards after hours of digging. One of our many fun finds.

Our New All-In-One  coming in August.

We always say  we are going to be really good about taking pictures at the show but we get busy and forget.  So here are the couple that we took. Yes, Bobbi and Carolyn did work but they also  did a great job of avoiding pictures :)

Kathy sharing our products with store owners.

Kathy and talented authors, Ruth and Liz.

We had so much fun and enjoyed seeing old friends.  Our favorite part of the show is meeting and spending time with  many talented and sweet people .

We hope to see you all at the Houston Fall Quilt Market in October!!!!

Simply Renee Team

CHA Winter – LA 2011

Ok, I know we have to be the slowest people ever getting our pictures posted!  By the time I get back from the show, unpack, take care of orders, catch up with my “personal” life  and emails – well now you may know why!

We were in the back of the convention center on one  end (which was a bit  of a worry for us), but we were by some amazing companies and all of us were busy throughout the show! 

Set-up is always  sooooo much fun!   The before…

The BIG REVEAL…two days of putting the  booth together,  clipping  product on all the displays - you know how much each one holds, so it takes a long time to load everything.  We were happy that everything turned out well.

We were excited about our new booth and our new All-In-One!

The All-In-One is amazing (if I can say so myself).  The trays hold a lot of  product and are really quite heavy when fully loaded.  The AIO is sturdy and even I was surprised with how much product we used to fill it up!  I love surprises like that! 

 

We thought it turned out great and we had lots of people wanting to take the booth and the All-In-One home with them.  The “junk” randomly placed along the garland at the top of the curtains brought a smile to fellow junkers!

Carolyn, Kathy and I worked the show and had a great time together.  I really appreciate all their hard work and thanks to Bobbi back home keeping everything running while we were away. This picture was from the last day of the show.  We had such a fun time and we were a little silly because it was close to being over!

My  favorite part (besides seeing and talking to all our friends) was the reaction people had to the new All-In-One.  We heard the word “WOW” in so many different accents, and the look of  AWE  was great!   I only wish we would have had a video camera of everyone’s faces when they saw it.

 

The new trays were a big hit!  You can use them on the Floor Model or the new All-In-One.  They hold soooo much!

 

Take down is always faster, but it’s still hard work!

We should have taken a picture of the crate all closed up – but seriously we were exhausted and hungry and DONE!

Thanks for being so patient waiting for this post!  Next time we’ll try to be better about taking more pictures and posting sooner.  Oh well, it gives you time to visit all the other blogs to see their posts.

Renee

CHA Friends

The best part of CHA is seeing old friends and making new ones!  Here’s just a few pictures with some of them.  We didn’t take enough pictures, so if we missed you we’re sorry.  It’s hard when you’re busy to get all the pictures you want.

Carolyn with Elena from Charity Wings after their “live chat”.  Elena is always such a doll and works so hard on behalf of others!

Diane from Graphic 45 is one of my best friends! We would spent all our time “junking” and creating if we didn’t have our “day jobs”! 

We got to meet the girls from Bella Blvd - Angela, Stephanie, and Robin.  Their booth was next to Jillibean Soup and across from us. It was fun getting to know you!  Great products!

Fabulous Designers : Gloria, Tracey, and Noel aka “cute hair girl” We met Noel at the hotel and we told her we loved her darling hair – hence the nickname!  Gloria and Tracey are designers for Graphic 45 and they all happened to meet at our booth.  Had fun visiting with them all!

We would like to take this time to thank all the wonderful companies who donate or trade their new releases with us so we can fill all of our Clip it Up products.  After looking at the All-In-One and the Floor Model, you can see  it requires a lot of product to fill them up. Make sure you visit their websites to see their new releases.

Mary Sabo and Annette Meklus with Ta-Da  stopped by the booth to visit.

We loved our new friends and neighbors at Jillibean Soup !  Jill and her friends were so much fun and made the set-up, take down  and the show great!  Thanks for the fun paper!

BoBunny – fabulous new look at their booth! We love them!  Hope Jan enjoyed her trip to Germany! Always love your new lines!

The lovely ladies from Graphic 45  - Charee, Diane and Aimee.  Not only dear friends, they have always supported us with their new lines.  Their new embellishments are incredible!  Can’t wait to use those!  Always an amazing booth and papers. 

Lori at My Little Yellow Bicycle – they continue to support us with all their new lines – can’t say enough about how great they’ve been to us!  Wonderful paper and embellishments!

Helen and crew at My Little Shoebox – Can I just say, what a fun, happy group of ladies who were just around the corner and shared their enthusiasm with us!

The laid-back guys from My Mind's Eye.  We had to catch them early before the show started since they were always so busy!

Dan and Nikki Sivils – Her husband said he is now known as “Mr Nikki Sivils”- what a great supporter he is of  his wife and their business.  Nikki is really a darling girl and very talented!

Nikki with her Clip it Up

Brother and sister duo Rachel and Cortney from The Robin’s Nest  Always fun to work with and their Dew Drops looked great on the new trays!

Chris from Plaid Enterprises with Kathy –loved all the Modge Podge  and other great products they sent to us for the trays! Cool products!!!

Teresa Collins and her girls – thank you for the great products and lending us your the extra “man muscle power” when we put the  top piece of our booth up!

Patti Jo from Offray Ribbon - Offray has been so generous, not only with our new ribbon organizers for the All-In-One, but with the 36” Ribbon Organizer.  We LOVE your ribbon and all your help!

Eryn, Amy and Angela  with Unity Stamps   Your stamps are amazing and we love working with you.  Our customers recognized your stamps and told us how much they love your products.

Check back tomorrow for pictures from our booth!!!

Renee

CHA 2011 – Quick Peek

CHA was a blast this year and we loved seeing old friend and meeting new ones.  Once we get unpacked we have lots of pictures to show, but in the meantime check out the links below for a brief peek of our booth and the new Clip it Up All-In-One!!!

Jackie from Canadian Scrapbooker stopped by.  Check out her blog : http://www.canadianscrapbooker.ca/jackie/?p=1376

Scrapbook.com stopped by and filmed the All-In-One.

Stop by their YouTube channel and check out some other great finds at CHA!

Thanks Jackie and Scrapbook.com for stopping by.  We have a lot more CHA stories and pictures to share.  Let us unpack and we’ll be back :)

Simply Renee

Quilt Show – Part 2

Just a glimpse of what was happening every night after we’d get back into our hotel room…

Bobbi (the newlywed) would be talking to Nate and feeling sad for being apart from one another.  Didn’t want her picture taken, but oh well!

      

Carolyn would be talking to Steve (her boyfriend) and would hide under the covers so she could hear him better and we couldn’t  hear her.  I took a couple of pictures of her under the covers, so she poked her head out for this one.

  

Kathy and I would work  on the finishing touches for our hats.  Bobbi and Carolyn would laugh at us cause they thought we were spending way to much time on them, but for Kathy and I  - that’s what we enjoy… creating!

I can tell you this – I  had my picture taken more on Halloween than I had all year!  We’d be walking and people would stop us and take pictures, come in our booth for pictures and we  found that people from other countries were fascinated and wanted to pose with us for pictures.  The man across from us said he was going to dress up after seeing all the people who came in our booth.  We had a man from India, several people from throughout Europe, Australia, and the good old USA!  We had a great day and it was fun to visit with everyone.

              

My back side – thanks! 

 

Kathy was thrilled to meet the authors of her favorite books!

We’re off to see the Wizard…

 

Elinor Bailey (shown below) – my sister-in-law was the one who encouraged Elinor to start making her dolls.  We met last year and she loved that we dressed up and our outfits.  We loved her outfit -  the hat, her earrings that she made, and everything about this icon in the doll-making world!

We had to get both sides of her hat so you could see her different earrings that she made!

 

What a truly fun, unique, happy, creative lady!  We love you Elinor!

When we got to the restaurant at the hotel (too tired to go anywhere else) we were greeted with clapping  and cheering because of our costumes!  Kind of dark to take pictures, but at least you can see Carolyn’s feathers were really purple!

 

Elinor brought Maggie Winfield (what a fun outfit and an adorable talented lady) back with her to see our products and to meet us.  Sorry, Elinor – got you with your eyes closed!

Take-down!   Everyone’s favorite part - NOT!  I always joke that you feel like circus people – fly in, set-up, do the show, take down and move on to the next city!  The best part of take-down is that it goes 10o times faster than setting up!  Beth from LizzieBCre8tive LOVED my shopping cart chair and chain-linked fence table.  She’s a junker also, and had the picture of our chair on her phone since last year!  She came back at the end of the show and asked if I was interested in selling them.  Since we are changing our booth for next year, and I LOVE them, but don’t have any place to put them in my new room or house, I made her day and sold them to her.  Talk about a happy lady!  Beth, I’m grateful a fellow junker who appreciates the finer things in life will be able to enjoy the chair and table.  It was hard for me to let them go – but I know their in good hands and someone who truly appreciate  their uniqueness!

Bobbi and Carolyn hard at work!

Carolyn and Kathy showing off their strength!  Kathy realized she forgot her PJ’s so Carolyn let her wear Steve’s T-shirt that she had brought.  Since Steve has the “big” muscles – they decided to give him a big muscle “thank-you!”  You know, after several days of working hard – we’d get a little silly at night!

I would like to give a HUGE thanks to Bobbi, Carolyn and Kathy for all their hard work, the giggles, their support in making everything work, dressing up, goofing around, and just being there to help Simply Renee be as successful as it is!  I appreciate their friendship and their love!

Renee